Abstract:
Inequality has clear links with democratic declines. Yet from a psychological perspective, little
is understood about how the ideologies that promote inequality change over time. Accordingly,
this thesis focuses on the development of two ideological motivations that are repeatedly
implicated in maintaining unequal societies. These include social dominance orientation
(SDO), which refers to a preference for hierarchical relations between groups, and right-wing
authoritarianism (RWA), which reflects the proclivity to obey traditional leaders, follow
socially conservative conventions, and to aggressively enforce social norms. Drawing data
from a large, longitudinal study of enrolled voters in New Zealand, I conduct three studies
investigating how SDO and RWA develop in relation to the social environment across the adult
lifespan. Study 1 helped to resolve inconsistencies in prior research by showing how
occupations that promote inequality become more homogeneous through a gradual cycle of
people being (a) assorted into roles that match their preference for societal hierarchies, and (b)
socialized into a greater desire for societal (in)equality over time. In Study 2, I examined how
salient changes in the environment during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic
impacted SDO and RWA. This study demonstrated that different restrictions were linked with
fluctuations in SDO and RWA. Moreover, this study also revealed that a nationwide lockdown
moderated the associations SDO and RWA had with institutional attitudes in ways that aligned
with the distinct goals they index. Finally, Study 3 applied a cohort-sequential design to
analyze both common developmental patterns across the adult lifespan and birth cohort effects
in SDO and RWA over a period of 11 years. While both SDO and RWA exhibited cohort
effects, these were more marked for RWA, suggesting its development may have a greater
situational dependence relative to SDO. Together, these studies show that these dual
ideological motivations shape¾and are shaped by¾the social environment and provide
insight into why inequality waxes and wanes over time.